I had a look at the prints of the cat, and I must say that I am a little confused.

At one stage I decided to learn a little about foot prints from the internet so I copied down drawings and notes on dogs including dingos, foxes, thylacine, cat prints (domestic and big cat prints). I keep these in front of me so that I can learn them.

The notes that I have indicate that in dogs, the two central toes will always be aligned in a straight line and generally claw marks will show. I will rule out thylacine as the paw print (made from a stuffed animal) shows five toes with claws - not four. In cat prints the two central toes are not aligned and generally claw marks do not show.

In the photograph of the prints the two central toes are aligned and claw marks do show. It may be a dog, but the prints seem to be deep, so it could be anything. Is it perhaps some unknown species?

Can anyone who is more of an expert than I am throw any light on this matter?

I felt that it was necessary to do a bit of looking around on the internet and as a result I found something that was interesting - but is it relevant here?

An article was written by M. Madhavan in "The Hindu" (newspaper) and the keywords of sholavam, Allimendu Village, Wild Cats, and Pug marks were indicated.

The story is that the people of Allimendu Village near the forest areas of Sholavaram, were concerned about tracks found on raised ground between paddy fields which they believed to be those of a leopard. The main point that I am making is that the tracks look to be the same as those that are the subject of this thread.

The article advised that senior forest officials said that "Based on the pug marks, in terms of their shape, length, and impact on the soil, the animal seems to be an adult male jackal." It was noted that an unidentified "brownish" animal was seen in the area.

Please do not accept my word on this - check it out yourself and come to your own conclusion.

Somewhere I made a comment that based on a print made from a stuffed animal, the thylacine would have five toes. I noted on a track chart that the author had the fifth toe dotted in and in light print, so that too, would have to be considered. If the principle of Ocam's Razor is applied, then the print is that of a dog.